BX 8495 
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A DREAM; 



AND WHAT FOLLOWED IT! 



SOME FACTS IN THE LAST YEAR'S MINISTRY AND 
LIFE OF THE 



REV. CHRISTOPHER THOMAS. 



BY 

Rev. LEROY M. LEE, D. D. 



Published by R. N. Sledd. 



PRICE, 25 CENTS. 



RICHMOND: 

JOHNS & GOOLSBY, PRINTERS. 
1&S2. 



A DREAM; 



AND WHAT FOLLOWED IT 



SOME FACTS IN THE LAST YEAB'S MINISTRY AND 
LIFE OF THE 



REV. CHRISTOPHER THOMAS. 



Rev. LEROY M.^EE, D. D. 



Published by K. N. Sledd. 



PRICE, 25 CENTS. 

If FLD 13 ]; 

RICHMOND: 

JOHNS & GOOLSBY, PRINTERS. 
1883. 



rv 




Entered according to act of Congress, in the Office of the Librarian at 
Washington, D. C, January, 1882, by K. N. Sledd. 



Now I saw in my dream, that by this time the pilgrims were 
got over the Enchanted Grounds, and entered into the country 
.of Beulah, whose air was very sweet and pleasant ; the way lying 
directly through it, they solaced themselves there for a season. 
Yea, here they heard continually the singing of birds, and saw 
every day the flowers appear in the earth, and heard the voice of 
the turtle in the land. In this country the sun shines night and 
day : wherefore this was beyond the Valley of the Shadow of 
Death, and also out of the reach of Giant Despair ; neither could 
they from this place so much as see Doubting Castle. Here 
they were within sight of the city they were going to ; also here 
met them some of the inhabitants thereof ; for in this land the 
shining ones commonly walked, because it was upon the borders 
of Heaven. Here they heard voices from out of the city, loud 
voices, saying, " Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy sal- 
vation cometh ! Behold, his reward is with him ! " 

Now, as they walked in this land, they had more rejoicing than 
in parts more remote from the kingdom to which they were 
bound ; and drawing near to the city, they had yet a more perfect 
view thereof. It was builded of pearls and precious stones, also 
the streets thereof were paved with gold ; so that, by reason of 
the natural glory of the city, and the reflection of the sunbeams 
upon it, Christian with desire fell sick ; Hopeful had also a fit or 
two of the same disease : wherefore here they lay by it awhile, 
crying out because of their pangs, " If you see my Beloved, tell 
him I am sick of love." Bunyan. 

This lovely land represents that blessed time, shorter or longer, 
in which saints tarry in their last sickness, waiting for Israel's 
chariots, and having a great desire to depart. It represents 

u The chamber where the good man meets his fate, 
That's privileged beyond the common walks 
Of virtuous life, quite on the verge of Heaven." 



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His prospects are now clear and glorious beyond conception. 
The dawn of Heaven is in his heart. Shining ones, unseen by 
all except the dying saint, are hovering around. This is the 
border of the King's country, the earnest of the saint's eternal 
inheritance. Harbaugh. 

Thus on he moves to meet his latter end, 
Angels around befriending virtue's friend ; 

Sinks to the grave with unperceived decay, 

While resignation gently slopes the way ; 
And, all his prospect brightening to the last, 
His Heaven commences ere the world be past. 



A DREAM, AND WHAT FOLLOWED IT. 



Facts in the Last Year's Ministry and Life of the Rev. 
Christopher Thomas. 

By Rev. Leroy M. Lee, D. D. 

In the month of February, 1829, the Virginia Conference of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church held its annual session in the 
town of Lynchburg, Va. At that early day the Conference territory 
covered a much larger space than it does now in 1881. Its 
boundary lines extended from the Rappahannock river on the 
north to the Cape Fear river, in North Carolina, on the south ; 
and from the Atlantic ocean on the east to the Blue Ridge moun- 
tains on the west. This large tract of country was supplied, as 
to its religious teaching, especially in the rural districts, mainly 
by the itinerant Methodist ministers. There were about one 
hundred of these earnest workers, of different ages, from young 
men to venerable age, engaged in supplying this large field. 
Very few of these preachers were stationed in town churches ; 
a large majority traveled circuits covering large tracts of country, 
and preaching in many of them every day in the week regularly 
throughout the year. All of these ministers rode on horseback, 
and very fine horses they were, too ; and of necessity — for they 
were always on the road — vehicles did not suit the ways one had 



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often to go, and they were rarely seen anyhow, especially in the 
mountainous parts of the country. The memory of the writer 
only recalls one vehicle, "a single gig," used among the mem- 
bers of the Conference in 1829. These ministers were men of 
one work. They were preachers ; they were pastors only as the 
necessities of daily preaching and constant travel brought them 
to the homes of their people. In the intervals of the Conference 
thpy saw little of each other. But their annual gatherings were 
festivals of social pleasure and personal enjoyment. Many had 
long rides of wearisome days to reach the place of the annual 
session. The place of the session was the point of attraction; 
and from thence to the outer limits the whole territory was 
stretched out like an open fan, and the lines of travel were as the 
frame work of the fan, all tending inward as to its hinge. If one 
started alone, he would find a companion journeying to Confer- 
ence in a day or so, and they would form groups as they went, 
until sometimes they would divide into smaller parties, and turn 
off on different roads. Methodist families kept open house for 
the entertainment of their ministers, and contemplated these 
visits of their old pastors and others as seasons of great social 
and religious joy. It is so to this day. It is a rare fact in the 
life-history of Methodist ministers — their country life and expe- 
rience especially — that one of them has found occasion to say : 

44 Whoever has gone earth's varied round, 

Through hot, through cold, through thick, through thin ; 
Will sigh to think he always found 
His heartiest welcome in an inn." 

No ; indeed. They, as others, are always welcome at a tavern ! 
But not only there! "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers " 
is a mode of manifesting obedience to God that has been well 
kept by multitudes of Christian people. 

Two evenings before the Conference of 1829, a group of these 
ministers stopped for the night at the house of a brother in 
Buckingham county, Va., within an easy day's ride of Lynch- 



i 

burg. In this company the subject of the following narrative 
was one of the travel-tired guests. 

Christopher Thomas was in middle life. He was a native of 
Matthews county, Va., and had been preaching some ten or 
twelve years. He was a plain man, of great simplicity of man- 
ners and kind feelings ; of rare spirituality of character, of ripe 
religious experience, and of substantial, but not showy, preach- 
ing abilities. In the pulpit he was grave without mannerism, 
dignified without pretension, and manly without stiffness or aus- 
terity. In the homes of his people he was always a welcome 
and a cheerful visitor, and among his brethren of the ministry 
he was deservedly held in high esteem for his fidelity to the 
church and his success in winning souls. An incident of per- 
sonal history, not without its unpleasant notorieties, occurring in 
the summer of 1828, had humiliated and saddened him; but, 
having become known in the church, had embellished his Chris- 
tian and ministerial manhood with the adornments "of a meek 
and quiet spirit," and augmented the esteem and confidence of 
his brethren for his patience under great provocation, and under 
personal ill-treatment. At a camp-meeting on Williamsburg 
Circuit, in York county, Va., there w T ere, as was frequently 
the case in those days, " certain lewd fellows of the baser sort" — 
such as those prototyped by "the unjust judge," Luke xviii, 
1-8 — "who neither feared God nor regarded man," who made 
their presence known, and their purpose in coming to the place, 
by their disregard of the rules of the meeting, and by various 
and wanton interruptions of the proprieties of the public worship. 
These were so regular and persistent, while Mr. Thomas was 
preaching one day, towards the close of the meeting, that he 
paused, remonstrated, and requested them to be quiet and allow 
him to continue and complete his discourse. The remonstrance 
was courteous, but manly and honest. It quieted, but provoked 
the party. They felt that the words were as barbed arrows pen- 
etrating their passions, and they rankled in their feelings. At 



8 



the close of the meeting, when he had gotten several miles from 
the place, his horse was stopped by several men — one held the 
bridle, the others ranging themselves on either side of the sulky. 
The leader and spokesman then said: 

"Sir, you insulted us at the camp-meeting; we determined to 
whip you for it, and have been waiting for you." 

"I offered no insult," he said. "But requested you not to 
disturb the services, and to be quiet, that we might enjoy our 
rights as citizens and Christians." 

"It is too late to apologize; we intend to whip you." 

" I am not apologizing. There are plenty of you to whip me. 
It is useless to resist. I hope God will give me grace to bear it." 

The man at his right hand then struck at him. He caught 
the stick, and pulled it from the man's hand. One or two at his 
right hand then seized the reins, and ordered him to give up the 
stick. He had only held it in his hand, without purpose or show 
of using it. He held it out towards the assailant, who took it and 
struck Mr. Thomas several blows over the head and shoulders, 
to which he submitted without flinching or remonstrance. When 
the man was satisfied, he stepped back and stood looking rest- 
lessly at his victim. The man who held the reins placed them 
silently in his hands. The one who held the horse let go the 
bridle and silently stepped out of the road. Mr. Thomas did 
not alter his position, or attempt to move from the spot. For a 
minute or more no one moved, no one spoke. At length the 
man at the right said : 

"We are done; you can go." 

"Are you satisfied?" said Mr. Thomas, looking round at 
them all. 

" Yes !" was replied from both sides of the road. He then 
drew the reins, made them a polite bow, and saying : 

"Gentlemen, I wish you a happy life!" drove away, leaving 
them, as the sequel showed, far more dissatisfied and uncomfort- 
able than himself. 



9 



At the next meeting of the grand jury these men were indicted, 
tried, convicted, and punished with fine, and, I believe, with a 
short imprisonment. During the trial the leader, in reply to a 
question of the court, said, in substance: "Yes; I struck Mr. 
Thomas several times, but I am sure I did not hurt him." And 
gave this reason for his belief: " I was very angry when I begun, 
and intended to beat Mr. Thomas severely. But his mildness 
and manly freedom from fear disarmed me, and took my strength 
from me. I hadn't the strength of a child in striking him. He 
was too patient and pious; his religion unnerved me ! When he 
-caught the stick, at the first, I could not have hindered him ; 
when he gave it back to me, I could not use it to hurt him." 
The affair brought shame and sorrow to the party. The wronged 
minister seldom spoke of the subject; never in my presence but 
-once, and that was under most impressive and solemn circum- 
stances — a dying utterance just before he folded his hands on his 
breast and closed his eyes on mortal things. What he said of it 
then will be related presently. 

We resume our narrative of "A dream, and what followed it." 

All Methodist ministers have pleasant and grateful memories 
of nights spent as was that of the group whose line of travel we 
have been tracing at the house of Col. W\, in Buckingham 
county. The writer, with a party of six preachers, was in the 
same neighborhood on the same night, and his memory is yet 
full of the cheerful hospitality so gratefully enjoyed on that pleas- 
ant evening. How regularly followed each other the hospitable 
Christian greeting, the blazing fire, the welcome and rich repast, 
the social and varied conversation, the delightful evening wor- 
ship, the luxurious beds, and quiet hours of refreshing sleep. 
Are not these things written in the books of recollection of all 
our faithful ministers in all parts of the country ? A sleeper on 
one of those beds that night had a dream that became a fact, 
and in history — strange, glorious history — as a revealment of 
things that were shortly to become to pass. 



10 



In the amenities of the morning-, at the early gathering in the 
parlor, the subdued and holy uplifting of the heart in family 
worship, in the affabilities of the breakfast-room, in all, and no- 
ticeable the face of Mr. Thomas was "sicklied over with the pale 
cast of thought" A subdued and quiet feeling, as if the soft 
pressure of a gentle hand was resting sorrowfully on his heart, 
and sad and shadowy ripples of thought and feeling were chasing 
each other over his usually calm and cheerful features. In the 
general cheer of the morning he was silent, thoughtful, absent. 
Was he sick ? No. Had anything displeased or troubled him > 
Nothing whatever. Then, for the satisfaction of the family and 
his brethren, he said : "A dream has depressed me; it may be 
only a dream of the night. But it concerns only myself — my 
future, short personal life. I am trying to solve its meaning : 
curious to know whence it came, and why." Curiosity did not 
question him further. 

On the road that day he was rallied about the depression of 
his spirits, and various conversations were had about dreams,, 
their causes, evanescence of their impressions, strange changes 
of personal identity in dreams, and the probability that the dream 
and its impressions would pass away and be forgotten in a few 
hours or a day. Mr. Thomas had no more of sensitiveness or 
superstition with respect to dreams than falls to the general lot 
of intelligent men. Reason, ridicule dreams as we may, there 
are very few grown persons who do not carry about in their 
secret and sacred memories dreams, and impressions made in 
dreams, that have shaped their lives, thrown some light or 
shadow over their hearts for years after their occurrence, and 
stretched their weird fingers along our silent life as indices of 
good coming to greet, or evil lurking along the path, and waiting 
in the future, as a sorrow or a calamity for us. Who, in his own 
personal experience, has not his own extraordinary dream that 
was so life-like in its facts and incidents, and so nearly real in 
some of its fulfillments that it seemed less a vagary of the mindi 



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in sleep than a revealment to it from a superior intelligence ? A 
Christian may not disbelieve or doubt that, " In a dream, in a 
vision of the night, "when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slum- 
berings upon the bed; then God openeth the ears of men, and 
sealeth their instruction." Job xxxiii, 15, 16. The dream, as 
he related it that day, may have seemed simple and common- 
place to his brethren; it was full of grave impressiveness to him, 
and they were not, could not, be indifferent in a matter that so 
intimately concerned the feelings and future of their brother. 
And when, after a few days, the signs of agreement, unity be- 
tween these night thoughts and the things they meant began to 
unfold themselves,, it was as if God had indeed spoken to his 
servant, and the voices of the signs were as musical as the vesper 
bells of the city of God. Like the old prophet, Mr. Thomas 
wrapped his head in his mantle and stood, silent and watching 
at the mouth of the events that were coming. 1 Kings xix, 13. 
He said, "I dreamed that we were at Conference, had gone 
through with its business, and met in the morning to receive our 
appointments ; that towards the close of the list my name was 
read out for an important station ; that this greatly surprised me, 
as it was the first time I had ever been stationed ; the reading 
went on, but the dream went far beyond it. I went to the church, 
and to work; that after awhile a revival of religion began — a 
glorious revival — surpassing every work of the kind that had 
ever been known in the place for the power of the Spirit and the 
number of conversions; that it gradually lessened, and when the 
meetings ceased I was taken sick, was sick a short time, and 
died — died happy, and went to heaven." 

More, no doubt, was said in relating the dream. But the sub- 
stantial points are preserved. They were the subject of conver- 
sation during the Conference, and afterwards, as the coincidences 
began to take form and development in the early facts of the 
case, they and the dream, and its subject, were themes of con- 
versation at many a Methodist fireside. 



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The next morning the Conference opened The Rev. William 
McKindree was the presiding Bishop of the session. Mr. 
Thomas had not met with nor ever seen the Bishop. He had 
anticipated his presidency of the Conference, and may have 
formed some idea of his form, his features, and his manners in 
the chair. When he sat down among his brethren and began to 
attend particularly to what was passing before him, a thought 
grew in him of some former knowledge of the person who was 
conducting the affairs of the body. Failing to recal anything 
from the past, he dismissed the matter, and gave his thoughts to 
present things. At a later period of the morning, his soul was 
stirred within him by a voice, seemingly audible, "It's the Bishop 
of your dream." He was conscious of the truth of the discovery 
made by the inner man, and it augmented his interest in the 
Bishop, without awakening anxiety as to what might yet appear 
in their relations to each other in the line of the dream. If 
there were any weakening of the impressions since yesterday, 
they were revived and strengthened by this recognition, and 
interest in the facts of the dream became more curious, if not 
more anxious, as the voice, gestures, form, face, tout ensemble of 
the Bishop brought the living reality of the dream with vivid 
distinctness, and with its original impressiveness so strongly be- 
fore the mind. It was reality — fulfillment number one. Would 
it have its second ? Would there be a following? Would the 
following be consecutive, regular ? Who could answer these 
questionings? Xo one; neither he nor his friends. Wait and 
see. He waited, and was calm. Of all I ever heard at the time, 
and I was familiar with its facts, I never heard of any anxiety or 
feeling beyond what, with any Christian man, would be simply 
natural to such relations with such facts as those I have under- 
taken to relate, under a long growing and now settled conviction 
of religious duty. We pause not over the business proceedings 
of the Conference, although one act of the session — the founda- 
tion of Randolph Macon College — has a history worthy of any 



13 



foody of Christian ministers, in any age or country of the world. 
We are pursuing a line of providential facts which evidently 
bear on their face the imprint of an Almighty hand. The last act 
of the Methodist Conference, the one that concludes its business 
and session, that has nothing after it but the doxology and ben- 
ediction, is " reading out the appointments." The meeting at 
which this was done in 1829 was held at sunrise, by special 
appointment of the body, at the close of the session on the pre- 
ceding day. It was a clear, cold morning. The bright rays of 
the sun were glinting the hilltops that, near and remote, encircle 
the town on every hand. The city was hardly awake to its daily 
life, when the quick and firm tread of men issuing from the hos- 
pitable homes of its people, awoke the echoes of its silent streets. 
They were all going to the same place — the old Methodist 
church, on Church street The ministers were prompt. The 
hymn was richly sung ; the prayers — for all prayed — humble, 
sincere, fervent, were ended, and all were seated, silent, waiting. 
Fifty years have gone since that sunrise meeting ; yet, the writer 
retains a vivid recollection of the scene and the Bishop's ad- 
dress, and he believes now — he said it then — that there was not 
a man — minister — in that house that, if God through His Bishop 
liad "commanded him to go to the farthest verge of the green 
earth" to preach His word, would not have essayed the task. 
In one of the pews, in front but to the left of the pulpit, sat the 
man that dreamed; and at his side one of the ministers to whom 
lie told the dream on the road the day after its occurrence. In 
the Conference, " met in the morning," the Bishop began reading 
the appointments. The districts, circuits and stations in Virginia 
were gone through with; those of Western Carolina and then in 
Southeastern Carolina, and the last district was reached and 
called, and the Presiding Elder named. Then — 

" Newberne, Christopher Thomas," was announced. Turning 
to the brother at his side, Mr. Thomas said quietly: 

"Another chapter of the dream is ended." 



14 



The reading went on to the close; but the amazed man, as in 
the dream, had gone off to read, as he might, what was yet 
written on the unopened pages of the dream. The coming chap- 
ters ; would they follow as had the Bishop, the morning meeting, 
and the station ? We shall see. Let us wait. Possibly Mr. 
Thomas remembered the writing, "It is good that a man should 
both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of God." That was, 
at least, one of the habits of the good man's life. 

There is a coincidence between the morning meeting of the 
dream and the sunrise meeting of the Conference that merits es- 
pecial notice. The fact of a sunrise meeting of the Virginia 
Conference to receive the appointments is a singular one in. the 
history of the body. The writer can speak from large knowl- 
edge on the subject. He was admitted on trial in the Virginia 
Conference at its session in Raleigh, N. C, in February, 1828. 
He did not attend that session. But he was at that of 1829 in 
Lynchburg. And from that time, except the session in the same 
place in January, 1841, he has answered to the roll-call at every 
session of the body since. Repeatedly the body has protracted 
its sitting to " the wee sma' hours o' the night." Sometimes to 
complete its business and receive the appointments; at others, 
having completed its business, to wait for the Bishop and Elders 
to complete and report the appointments. But never, except in 
1829, has the Conference, having finished its business in one day, 
adjourned to meet the next morning to receive the appointments. 
It is a novelty in the history of our Conference. And yet one 
of the members of the body dreamed two nights before it com- 
menced that the appointments were read out in the morning. 
It is not much by itself; but in its relatians to other facts it is a 
remarkable fact. It would gratify one's curiosity, as well as 
one's religious feelings, to have a minute account of the occur- 
rences in the Bishop's room during the afternoon and night of 
that last day of the Conference. God only knew why the chariots 
of Pharaoh went heavily through the sands of the Red Sea on 



15 



the night of the exodus ! He tells us. God was troubling 
them. There was somebody in that council-room in Lynchburg 
who did not want Christopher Thomas to go to Newberne. God' 
was troubling the Bishop and the Elders ! How do I know ? I 
do not know ; but I believe, and therefore I speak. I know 
many- changes of men and their places were made during the 
last hours of the Council. I doubt whether Mr. Thomas was at 
first nominated, or thought of, for the place he was sent to fill. 
In Conference parlance many heads were lifted up that night ; 
some of them often, mine among them more than once. As to 
territory, and climate, and social circumstances, my first was a 
great lifting — from the Blue mountains about Lynchburg and; 
Campbell Circuit to the lowlands of Neuse Circuit, lying be- 
tween Neuse and Tar rivers, and running down the swampy 
peninsula between the towns of Washington and Newberne. 
God had selected Newberne for the man of the dream, and was 
bringing him and the young man who was to write its history 
in close neighborhood with each other. God's way and will pre- 
vailed. The good men of the stationing-room, who could not 
understand all these changes in their own opinions and feelings,, 
nor all the reasons for these various transpositions of the preach- 
ers, nor all of the causes of their own ultimate assent and cheer- 
ful acquiescence in them, came at length to see, eye to eye, to 
certify their own satisfaction with the work that was done, and 
to go their various ways to their different fields of labor "of one 
mind and one heart, in the knowledge and love of God." 

Heretofore, as it regards the main facts of this dream, we have 
been writing on the authority of others ; but, at the same time, 
it may be said, on information gained from those who had con- 
versations with Mr. Thomas himself, he seldom spoke of his. 
dream, only as at the first, to a few friends ; afterwards, in re- 
sponse to those who, from personal curiosity or religious interest, 
desired to have fuller information than they had received, or could 
otherwise obtain. He never shunned the facts, as above related,. 



16 



and never, as we religiously believe, paraded them, or volun- 
teered them as subjects of thought or conversation among 
friends or strangers. Indeed, I am persuaded that, after the 
adjournment of Conference, the matter was rarely or never men- 
tioned, except in an occasional meeting of those who were famil- 
iar with the incidents of the case already stated. Nor did a word 
of any kind pass between him and myself on the subject; and 
in this I include the future of the narrative as well as the past. 
Yet, in what is now to be related I shall write with more con- 
sciousness of certainty, not from any thought or feeling of defec- 
tive or improper information as to the preceding portions of the 
narrative, or any part of it, but because, from our nearness to 
each other, I became more intimate with him, had better knowl- 
edge of his personal and ministerial character and habits, and a 
closer and clearer insight into 'his social feelings and religious 
life. And, more than all, because in the final issues of this his- 
tory I was, in some respects, an "eye and ear witness" of the 
things I am about to relate. 

It was a long ride from Lynchburg to Newberne, and also from 
Lynchburg to Washington and Plymouth, my own field of labor 
for the year. Pausing, I believe, only for Sabbath rest, we were 
in our respective pulpits on the second Sabbath after Conference. 
We were not far apart. Washington is about thirty miles north 
of Newberne, and Plymouth, a small town, about the same dis- 
tance northeast of Washington. A week, alternately, was spent 
in each. There was frequent intercourse, business and social, 
between Newberne and Washington. Good reports often reached 
me of my brother — of his favorable reception by the people; of 
the growing popularity and power of his preaching; of his 
industry and earnestness as a pastor ; of his personal excellen- 
cies and social qualities; of the increasing seriousness and zeal 
of the congregation, and presently of the brightening and glo- 
rious prospects of the church. As the year progressed there 
was no abatement of these good tidings ; rather they were 



17 



strengthened and intensified. Religious themes were matters of" 
common conversation ; sermons were discussed in stores and at 
street corners ; revivals, so far back in the dead past of town, 
history that, if not entirely forgotten, they were scarcely remem- 
bered by any but the old people. Then a camp-meeting was, 
talked of, grew in favor, and in July was resolved on, and prepa r 
ration begun for time, place, and provision for holding it. All 
hearts were in expectation of some great religious unfolding. 
The religious quickening in the town extended to the churches, 
in the country. The camp-meeting had earnest advocates with 
preachers and people, and the time and place were fixed. 

In all the months since Conference nothing has been said as 
to any followings of, the dream that were then future. We have 
had nothing to say. Mr. Thomas did not start out to his 
year's work nor enter upon it as a man in fetters, or as one oik 
his way to prison. He was as unfettered and free in going to- 
his station, notwithstanding the strange circumstances attending 
the appointment, as he had ever felt in going to a circuit. He 
was Christ's freedman in this year's work, as completely as ini 
other years of his ministry; and there were no more trammels 
on mind, heart, measures, or means of making full proof of his, 
ministry, than there were on the freedom and activity of his, s 
limbs and movements. If he had not wholly forgotten the 
things that were behind, they were not worrying him with any 
unusual anxiety, nor precipitating any extra zeal in pressing for- 
ward towards those which were before. He was too strong and t 
soul-poised in "the obedience of Christ," and had too rich an, 
experience of his love and power to waste his energies and wreck 
his usefulness by moody anticipations of evil in the near or dis- 
tant future. He is a poor servant of Christ "who, through fear 
of death, is all his lifetime subject to bondage." As a man sent 
of God, he, no doubt, felt that a Christian minister is immortal, 
till his work is done ; and therefore the future, as his dream fore- 
told, did not hang on his soul as a cloud along a dark and stormy- 



IS 



sky, but rather as a soft, rosy vapor in the pure azure of a 

summer evening heaven. Happy the shipwrecked mariner, 

alone on a dark and stormy sea, when the waves and winds that 

uphold and drive him are rolling in on a grassy shore ! Every 

human life has its end ; and the two are always getting nearer 

and nearer to each other. Glorious is the monumental record of 

the old Patriarch to whom God had assigned a great work, and 

given him one hundred and twenty years for its completion. 

We may be sure no time was lost in beginning the work, and 

none wasted in its execution. And there stands this day, and 

will remain forever, on the scroll of human history, in brilliant 

and imperishable characters, God's recognition of obedience, and 

His commendation of fidelity. "Thus did Noah; according to 

all that God commanded him, so did he." Gen. vi, 22. So, 

also, did Christopher Thomas. Everywhere, and in all things, 

he was faithful to Him who called him to the work of the minis- 
t 

try. In the pulpit, in the chambers of the sick, in the humble 
liomes of poverty and want, in the houses of wealth and ease, 
whether prayerful or restraining prayer before God, he was simple 
of heart and fervent of spirit — "always abounding in the work 
of the Lord." At any time, perhaps, he could have said or sung : 

" Ready for all Thy perfect will, 
My acts of faith and love repeat ; 
Till death Thy endless mercies seal, 
And make the sacrifice complete." 

It was a beautiful morning in August when the steamer, well 
freighted with passengers and camp equipage, started out from 
Newberne for a forty miles' run down the broad and quiet Neuse; 
and then a sharp turn and a short run up Adams' creek, and we 
were at the camp-ground on its banks. There were many in the 
crowd going on their first visit to such a meeting, and they were 
full of eager curiosity about life in a camp and religious meet- 
ings by day and night in the woods. Interesting paragraphs 
might be written of the scenes and incidents of that day on the 



19 



boat, but they do not really belong to the narrative we are 
tracing. It is enough to say that many of the gay and curious, 
and far from God, were brought nigh by the blood of the Lamb, 
and one of the most proud and irreligious, seemingly, was con- 
verted shortly afterward, and became an earnest and useful min- 
ister of the gospel. 

The meeting was a good one, in all respects, from the com- 
mencement to the close. I enter into no details. It is intro- 
duced mainly because it brought me into closer intimacy with 
Mr. Thomas ; gave me better opportunities than I had before 
enjoyed of forming opinions of his "character, and confirmed all 
the good things I had heard of him as a man, a Christian, a 
pastor, and a preacher. We were remote from each other in our 
work the preceding year, and news did not travel then as it does 
now. I knew nothing of the ill-treatment he received after the 
camp-meeting, above related, until it was talked of at the Con- 
ference in Lynchburg; and that, in connection with the strange 
dream and its followings there, had peculiar attractions, and gave 
him a new and greater hold upon the confidence and love of his 
brethren. The man that, without shrinkage of Christian manli- 
liness, sat still and submitted to a beating, whom, seemingly, God 
in a night visited and foretold his future in a dream, was not a 
man to be held in low esteem by such men as then composed a 
Methodist Conference ! The patient endurance of that rude 
treatment may have been the cause of that, possibly, strange and 
strong purpose of some one in the Council to nominate him for 
a station, and to persist in it until others yielded ; and the un- 
known history of the dream was advanced another stage towards 
its ultimate issue. Who can say Nay to these suggestions, and 
yet believe ? 

" God moves in a mysterious way 
His wonders to perform.'' 

The preacher's tent is the bliss or blight of a camp-meeting. 
There were no rivalries among the preachers; no political antag- 



20 



onisms or discussions; no religious controversies; no moral whet- 
stones for the sharpening of historical, logical, or theological 
knives; no worldliness of spirit, or of talking, and no personal 
or social gossip indulged in at the Adams' creek camp-meeting^ 
of 1829. The ministers were men of one work; and the work 
of the occasion was the theme of thought, feeling, and conver- 
sation. It was good to be among them. The preaching was 
simple, clear, direct; brimful of Christ, and musical with love 
and zeal. It is nearly fifty years since, but to this hour (Decem- 
ber, 1 881) I retain a vivid recollection of a sermon preached one 
morning by Mr. Thomas. The text was : " Blessed be the God! 
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His 
abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by 
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance,, 
incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved 
in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through 
faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." 1 
Pet. i, 3-5. The discourse was not formulated into topics, nor 
was it distributed into propositions. It was textual — simply 
and powerfully expository. He held the text, its terms and 
ideas, in firm and close embrace, elaborated the life of its words, 
gathered rich clusters of grace and consolation from its hidden 
fountains, grouped its gems of pure and fadeless beauty into an 
holy temple — a fabric reposing for strength and excellency upon 
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead — and struck the 
whole with the rod of his mouth until it emitted jets of fire, as 
the rock of Horeb gushed water from its pores under the vig- 
orous blows of Moses. Bulwer says: " The true secret of elo - 
quence is earnestness." By this standard the preacher was 
eloquent ; the preaching powerful and transporting. It awoke 
wails of anguish and terror in the breasts of the ungodly; it 
stirred the notes of new songs of hope and gladness in the- 
hearts of the devout and holy. A subdued feeling — the calm 
and resolute purpose of new and better lives — seemed to engross 



21 

all feeling, to rest on all hearts. After that sermon I no longer 
regarded the reports that had reached me in the earlier periods 
of the year as the extravagance of fancy, or the enthusiasm of 
friendship. There was no beauty in his face or person. Rather, 
he was homely of feature, had a limp in his gait, and was thin, 
disproportioned, and angular in his frame and form. But there 
was nothing ugly, awkward, or ungraceful about his face, form, 
or movements. In repose his face was calm, tranquil, and 
happy; in conversation, warm, sunny, saintly; in preaching, 
lucid, bright, lustrious — radiant with light and beautiful with 
love. Any and every personal defect was concealed or forgotten 
in the freshness of his thoughts, the clearness and vigor of his 
style, and in his complete self-absorption in his subject. In 
intercourse with his brethren, in those brief intervals of rest from 
pulpit and altar work, he was gentle, confiding, and free ; sedately 
spiritual ; serenely cheerful ; of a broad, good nature, and had a 
felicitous familiarity with the very time and place to put in a 
word or saying that would generate a smile, or produce some- 
thing akin to a quiet, good-humored laugh — after awhile. But 
he was too keenly alive to the things of the Spirit to indulge in 
any thoughts or feelings that could excite or foster a tendency 
to mirth or levity. Instead, from the beginning, and all the time, 
he was evidently in great travail of soul. 

The meeting closed — tents were struck, the pulpit dismantled, 
baggage packed, the boat came and went away — leaving silence 
and solitude where there had been preaching, praying, and the 
joyous singing of the sweet Songs of Zion. 

Shortly after the return to Newberne there was a most gracious 
manifestation of spiritual influence in the church and congrega- 
tion. The word of life by Jesus Christ had free course, and was 
glorified. Awakenings of sinners were frequent and deep. 
Christians were wonderfully quickened. Zion put on her beau- 
tiful garments of prayer and praise. Conversions increased in 
number and power. The revival ran like fire, brightening and 

2 



22 



purifying as it went. It pervaded the community, carrying 
wonder and fear, pardon and peace in its course. The church 
was open day and night. The word of exhortation substituted 
preaching. Private houses in all parts of the town were thrown 
open for prayer meeting. Taere were few of them that did not 
have penitents or new converts, or both, around whom others 
gathered with songs of gladness ; and curious neighbors ran in 
to see, and remained to pray ; and then, flying with shoutings to 
their own homes, reproduced there scenes like those at which 
they had just found peace and joy in believing. The work went 
on for weeks and weeks. I was pastor of that church the year 
following (1830), and many a time have I sat and listened to 
recitals from the most reputable people in the community, young 
and old, and of both sexes, of the strange places in which they 
and others were converted — in kitchens with the servants ; in 
sitting-rooms behind stores ; in the store ; along the street — so 
mightily grew the word of God, and prevailed. Great social 
and religious changes were effected. It was a moral and spiritul 
convulsion and revolution in the personal habits and home cir- 
cumstances of multitudes of people. For nearly or quite two 
months religion was the absorbing theme, the controlling fact 
.and power of the community. In October the revival subsided. 
It was declining — dying out as a fire for want of fuel. Divine 
mercy is always at its uttermost. God, who is always willing 
and ready to save, was saving all He could ; presently, had saved 
all who could then be saved. He could have saved all, and 
would have saved them. But they would not let Him. " The 
kingdom of heaven suffer eth violence ; and the violent taketh it 
by force." But it offereth no violence, it taketh none by force. 
God coerces no one's will. The will of man must coincide with 
the will of God, and submit to it, or man is not, cannot, be saved. 
All who submitted and believed in Christ were saved during 
that gracious manifestation of "the power of God unto salva- 
tion." But when the revival had worked out its glorious results 



23 



in saving, and the hearts of the unwilling and disobedient were 
fully set in them to do evil, and to walk after their own ways, 
the work of saving for the time was ended ; the lights went out at 
the altar, the pulpit was silent, the doors of the church were 
closed, and — the fourth chapter of the dream was ended! 

At the end of the revival meetings he preached his last sermon 
to a large congregation from Rev. xii, i. At its close he said 
that "he should never preach to them again, and he gave them 
his dying advice." He had said nothing on the subject, but the 
dream was alive in him ; its premonitions of approaching con- 
summation w r ere felt, but not feared. For awhile after he was 
going about, "faint, but pursuing." He went one night, about 
the 8th of November, from the church with the family of Mr. 
Bell to spend the night. The next morning he was sick ; on the 
14th he died. 

In the dream the sickness of the preacher trod closely on the 
heels of the revival. The stage that brought us news that the 
meetings had ceased, reported soon after that Mr. Thomas was 
sick. The next day he was worse, the third dangerous ; by the 
return stage that afternoon I was in his room, ready for all the 
ministries of religion and love. He was conscious — knew me, 
and was glad. Although I had gone to a town populous and 
busy, it seemed that I had entered a house of mourning. All 
were sad and heavy-hearted. There were three hundred white 
and nine hundred colored members of the church ; a large con- 
gregation of whites, and, beside, every citizen of the place 
seemed to feel that the burden of a great sorrow had fallen upon 
them. Inquiries at the door seemed to have no pause; persons 
of all ages and sexes, Protestant and Catholic, came softly into 
the room, and with the silent eloquence of an unspeakable sor- 
row gazed upon the. face of the sick minister as of one they 
held in greatest reverence and warmest love. We all felt that 
his life's work was done — his end was nigh. In the dream it 
was a short sickness ; in fact, it was only of a few days, and then — 
a happy death, and heaven. 



24 



For reasons that will prove their own necessity, I give a brief 
outline view of the room in which he died. It was a small 
room, about twelve feet square. It was entered from a passage; 
the head of the bed stood close against the wall of the passage, 
and there was space enough at the sides and foot of the bed for 
persons to stand. Directly opposite and in front of the door 
was the fireplace ; a central line from the one to the other would 
have left the bed three feet to the left of it. Mr. Thomas was 
lying on his back, at full length, in the middle of the bed. The 
Rev. Moses Brock, the Presiding Elder, was standing by the 
bolster at his right side, near the door. I stood at his feet as he 
lay on the bed. A solitary candle, giving a feeble light, but 
sufficient for all needful purposes, was sitting within the fire- 
place. Every available place around and about the bed was 
occupied, and in some places they stood in double rows. From 
my place I had a full view of the door, of all about the bed, and 
in the room, and by a slight turn of the head could see the fire- 
place and the candle in it. During the earlier part of the evening 
Mr. Thomas had been talking; we were listening, lovingly, to 
his dying words. After one of the pauses, and as if in conver- 
sation with some one, he said: "Yes; they whipped me last 
year ! But God gave me grace to bear it." Then, clasping his 
hands over his breast, and closing his eyes, added, with the emo- 
tion of earnest prayer, " Lord, have mercy on their souls !'* 
It was now about 9 o'clock ; we were expecting the end, and 
silently waiting for it. He was quiet, calm, conscious of who 
were present, and of the scene about him. At this period Mr. 
Brock said to him : 

" Brother Thomas, do you know me ?" 

" Yes, Brother Brock, I know you ; know you very well." 

"Brother Thomas, are you happy?" 

"Yes, sir, I'm happy; perfectly happy. Death is my friend ; 
I live in Christ, and Christ is all to me." 

After this there was a pause of a few minutes, when, looking 
around on us, he said: "Farewell ! farewell ! I have all I desire."" 



25 



We were watching silently, almost breathlessly, waiting. Sud- 
denly there was a flush of stronger, richer light about the bed, 
and filling the room. I believe every one present was conscious 
and cognizant of this new and greater light. I looked instinct- 
ively to the door to see who had come in with the light. Seeing 
no one, and nothing to satisfy or explain what was so evidently 
positive, the greater and clearer light in the room, I turned to 
the fireplace. There was nothing there to explain the fact or 
satisfy the feeling it awakened; the one candle only was burning 
there. Coetaneous with the incoming of the light, the face of 
Mr. Thomas brightened, his eyes were radiant, his features — I 
am at a loss for a better word — blazing with joy and gladness. 
He looked steadily and silently in the face of each person around 
the bed, from the left down the side, across the foot, up to right, 
where the Elder stood; then back, all around the left. The 
survey was calm, surprised, inquiring. Then he said, in words 
clear and strong : " Oh ! how beautiful you all appear !" He yet 
surveyed the faces about him wonderingly. He then raised his 
eyes, elevated the line of vision higher, ranged them around the 
circle, but above them, and then, as if he had found the expla- 
nation of his own surprise,, he stretched forth his right arm, the 
liand spread out and the fingers apart, he exclaimed, " Why ! 
there they are ! there they are !" His arm, hand, and fingers 
were all in motion ; they seemed to follow and describe the 
movements of beings visible to him; but, to his amazement, 
invisible to us. For presently, still moving his arm about, and 
looking us one and another in the face, he cried out, Don't you 
see them? There they are. Don't you see them? There they 
are. Still, again, as if he began to feel the difference between 
his circumstances and ours, he said, " Can't you see them ? There 
they are. There they are." This joyous scene continued for 
some time. At length his arm grew weary, it gradually ceased 
to follow the movements of those he knew were present but 
could not see, and slowly stopped and sunk to repose across his 



26 



breast. Some gentle and loving hand drew the cover over it. 
But the light remained; and those with whom it came. He lay- 
quietly looking at us about him, and those above and around us. 
The radiance was not gone from his face, but his eyes were 
closed. Life and strength were nearly gone. Still we all waited 
and watched the growing shadows. About 1 1 o'clock the Elder 
spoke to him again, in nearly the same words. He was too 
weak to speak; an upward movement of the head was the sign 
of hearing and knowing. Then he said : " Brother, you are 
passing away from us; if Christ is still with you, and you are 
yet happy, lift your hand in token of your triumph in death."" 
There was a slight movement under the cover; gradually the 
hand moved upward on his breast, it was free of the cover, 
slowly it went up, the arm was erect at full length, the hand 
opened, waved; the arm began to sink, the elbow rested on his 
bosom; with his left hand he caught the wrist as it fell, and held 
it still up and waving, till both hands rested in their last repose 
on his holy and happy breast. The dream was finished on earth ; 
the angels were present and waiting to conduct him to its last 
revealment in heaven. 

I have only a little more to add. I succeeded Mr. Thomas as 
pastor of the church in Newberne the year after his death. He, 
his- ministry, the revival, the character of his death, were often 
the subjects of conversation. I saw many, perhaps all, of those 
who, with me, were in the room the night of his death. If they 
were alive now I believe they would, every one of them, certify 
the truth and correctness of my statement. They might add 
facts that I did not notice, or may have forgotten; but they 
would not doubt or contradict. Many a time have I, in personal 
and pastoral intercourse with them, heard them give expression 
to their opinions and feelings on the subject in such remarks as 
these : " Were you there when he died ? Were you there when 
the angels came? and did you see that light? Yes, I saw that 
light. He saw the angels ; and didn't you wish that you could 



27 



sec them too ? The room must have been full of them, and the 
light was so bright and beautiful !" There could scarcely have 
been fewer than fifteen, perhaps twenty, persons in the room at 
any time during that wonderful manifestation of grace and love. 

And now, let me say for myself, and of my belief and convic- 
tions : that after the lapse of more than fifty years I retain a more 
vivid recollection of that night and its scenes than I am now 
able to describe. I fully believe in the presence of the angels, 
and that they were seen by the dying saint; and of the strange 
and beautiful light we all saw, that that light has never faded 
from my memory. I do not speak of the fact; but of the light 
itself. From that time to this hour my memory holds it as a 
vision, or fact of sight and consciousness, as tenaciously as it 
does the time, the place, and the circumstances of its occur- 
rence. I never think or speak of the scene in that room but the 
light comes as distinctly into view as any other fact or feature of 
the occasion. I distinguish it from all the other lights I have 
ever seen. I discriminate it in, and from, any and all artificial 
light; from candle, lamp, and gas light; from starlight, and 
moonlight, and sunlight. I cannot, and do not, attempt to de- 
scribe it. Were I an adept at word-painting, a silent reverence 
and a grateful memory would hold the power in abeyance. If I 
were a skilled artist, unless I could paint the sound and melody 
of the song the angels sung to the Shepherds of Bethlehem, I 
would not attempt the light of that night scene in the room 
where a faithful servant of God passed from us, and from earth,, 
under the escort of angels, to his heavenly rest — the last chapter 
of his wonderful dream of nearly a year before. And yet, I am 
as sure that I saw that light, and that it came in with the angels, 
as I am that I have seen the lovelight in my mother's eye, and 
the joyous smiles that used to play over the face of my loving 
and dead wife ! 

In a ministry of more than half a century, in social companies, 
in pastoral visitations, in the chambers of the sick and dying, I 



28 

i ■ ?. 

have repeatedly heard Christians speaking of incidents of the 
presence of the angels of God about the death-beds of the saints. 
But only in the case above related have I been present and a 
witness of such a manifestation of angelic presence and sympa- 
thy. I believed it as an elemental truth of Christian teaching. 
I am, and have been, since I stood in the unearthly light that 
filled the room, and beautified in the eyes of my dying brother 
minister, the faces of all who were present when he only saw 
them, a firm believer, and as fully persuaded of this fact and 
feature of the ministering angels, as I am of their "carrying 
Lazarus to Abraham's bosom," or of their " rejoicing over one 
sinner that repenteth." And why should they not come to grace 
and crown with their presence and gratulations the glory of 
redeeming love in the death of a faithful and true witness of 
"the truth as it is in Jesus"? The wonder is, from the stand- 
point of the Christian Scriptures, that these angel's visits are not 
more frequent in the chambers where these servants and saints 
of God are passing "through the valley of the shadow of death." 
It would evidently be so if life were more an evidence and expres- 
sion of "true riches of grace in Christ Jesus our Lord." The 
wonder of Mr. Thomas, as all felt who were present with him 
at the time of his death, was not that the angels were there, but 
that we could not, or did not, see them as he did. There was, 
on his part, a clear sight of them, and of the effect of their pres- 
CSir** in rendering us "beautiful" in their glorious light. His 
f&st ixpression — exclamation, rather — coetaneous with the flush 
of ll^ht that filled the room, was : " Oh ! how beautiful you all 
appear" — surveying the whole circle of faces about his bed. 
And then, with a wonderful emphasis of earnestness and anxiety, 
still looking around the circle, he exclaimed : " Why, there they 
are ! there they are !" And yet, more wonderful and earnest, 
" Can't you see them ? can't you see them ?" There they are !" 
His hand and fingers following, as it seemed, their movements 
about the bed, and about us, who were looking at his ecstacy of 



29 



surprise and joy, with heartfelt wonder, and speechless awe and 
reverence. 

The revealment of the Bible as to the nature, number, and mis- 
sion of the unfallen angels, is replete with information. Earth's 
human population is put as at least fourteen hundred millions of 
people, and yet it is supposed to be capable of holding indefinite 
millions more, with ample space and capacity of feeding them 
all, and with abundant resources for progress and improvement 
coetaneous with human capability, and the needs of the race in 
physical and mental expansion and culture. Earth is the me- 
tropolis of a great kingdom — of God's Empire! — and there is no 
stint in the variety or abundance of its provisions for an indefi- 
nite increase of its population through the indefinite centuries of 
its occupation. The ever varying and multiplying needs of its 
peoples for subsistence, the gratification of taste, and the increase 
of comfort and happiness will never exhaust the fertility of the 
earth or the abundance of the stores that Infinite wisdom has 
provided, and Infinite mercy places within reach of human en- 
ergy for. discovery and use, and of human invention and art for 
expansion and application. Inspiration doss not contradict or 
contravene, on these subjects, the largest probabilities of calcula- 
tion, or the gravest possibilities of fact. Our Christian theology 
sanctions and consecrates the belief of even greater and more 
glorious manifestations of spirit, and spiritual things, than are 
or yet have been made known to the sons of man. It is not 
mere, but more than poetry, that indefinitely multiplied " mil- 
lions of spiritual beings walk the earth unseen whether we wake 
or sleep." Of these " spiritual beings" — good angels — that 
" walk the earth'" the number is, or may be, on strictly Christian 
grounds, indefinitely more than its mere human occupants. 
Terms are used as to the number of the angels by the sacred 
writers, that defy human comprehension, and challenge even its 
powers of computation. Two passages — one from the Old, the 
other from the New Testament — will abundantly sustain this 



30 



opinion : the one is a personal vision of a scene in heave-n, mer- 
cifully portrayed before the wrapt eyes of the prophet ; the other 
a revelation of the things to which they have come, who have 
come to Jesus, "the one " and only "Mediator between God and 
men." 

" I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of 
day did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of 
his head like the pure wool ; his throne was like the fiery flame, 
and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came 
forth from before him ; thousand thousands ministered unto him, 
and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him ; the 
judgment was set, and the books were opened." Daniel vii, 
9-10. 

Paul's revelation is less explicit, but quite as full in its facts 
and revealments as that of Daniel. He says : 

" But ye have come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the 
living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable com- 
pany of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first- 
born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, 
and the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator 
of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speak- 
eth better things than that of Abel." Hebrews xii, 22-24. 

A brief analysis and comparison of the different but not discord- 
ant, terms of these descriptive passages of the prophet and the 
apostle may shed better light on the ministry of the angels, and 
bring us more directly to the object of their introduction — their 
bearing upon the scene at the death of a saint and servant of the 
Lord Jesus Christ. As — 

1. The enthroned Ancient of days seated as Judge, with the 
opened books before him of Daniel ; and Mount Zion, the city 
of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, of Paul, although dif- 
fering in form of description, are, in fact and intention, the equiv- 
alents of each other. 

2. The indefinite millions of angels round about the throne, in 



31 



Daniel, and the innumerable company of angels and the general 
assembly of the church of the first-born, of Paul, answer to each 
other in all the ideas of spiritual beings, of number, and of wor- 
shiping and waiting on the will of God. 

3. Both the prophet and the apostle express, under different 
forms of words, the fact that incalculable and countless millions 
of angelic beings are always employed in the merciful purposes 
of the kingdom of God. As thus : a thousand thousand are a 
million. But the plural — thousand thousands — indefinitely mul- 
tiply it, when even one plural will make it a billion ! — a thousand 
million ! Again : Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before 
him. This represents an hundred million standing, as waiting a 
word, and ready to go and serve. Paul's innumerable company 
of angels includes all that Daniel " beheld," and contains the 
idea that in our church and Christian life we have come unto the 
company, and into the goodly fellowship of these angelic hosts 
all of whom are workers for God, and with God! 

4. But Paul, in the phrase and unto the spirits of just men made 
perfect, augments, incalculably, the idea and numbers of Daniel, 
and opens a new and not sufficiently accepted, or thought of, 
phase in the administration of the government of God — that the 
redeemed and saved spirits of men are transmuted into active par- 
ticipants in the plans and purposes of God in the redemption of the 
world ! But not only have we come unto an innumerable com- 
pany of angels, and unto the spirits of just men made perfect, 
but also " unto Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to 
the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of 
Abel." The mediatorial administration of the kingdom of God 
by Jesus Christ is older than his incarnation. It predates, in ex- 
istence and objects, the creation of man; and has been in full 
force and operation since the. first transgression. If, as we may 
safely suppose, Abel was the first denizen of earth and time that 
passed into the heavenly city, it was through the mediation and 
merit of Jesus Christ that he, through "the blood of sprink- 



32 



ling," entered through the gates into the city of God. Those 
gates have never since been closed; that blood of sprinkling was 
shed, and is effectual for all; and yet is, and will be, available 
forever. God has his own way of saving souls and populating 
the new Jerusalem, in and through, and outside of the agencies 
of the visible church. From the beginning through patriarchal 
times, through the wide range and long centuries of prophetic 
history and teaching down to the last records of the Sacred 
Books, we have an outline view of the history of redemption 
under the Mediatorial Reign of Jesus Christ. From the end 
back to the beginning John saw the holy numbers of the saved 
and sealed subjects — the uncountable number, not of the angels 
round about the throne, but of the spirits of just men made per- 
fect, who in the ages past had entered heaven through "the blood 
of sprinkling"; whom God. knows how to save, and had saved, 
outside of and independent of the organized agencies, and visi- 
ble activities of Christian working, but not without Jesus the one 
Mediator between God and men. After describing the sealing 
of the one hundred and forty-four thousand out of the tribes of 
Israel, John says : "After these things I saw and beheld, and lo, 
a great multitude, which no man could number, out of all na- 
tions, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the 
throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms 
in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to 
our God, which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. 
And all the angels were standing round about the throne, and 
about the elders, and about the four living creatures; and they 
fell before the throne on their faces and worshiped God, saying, 
Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and 
honor, and power, and might, be unto our God forever and ever. 
Amen." Rev. vii, 9-12. Here, in the countless hosts about the 
throne of God, John saw the created angels and the redeemed 
spirits of just ^ men made perfect, with their different positions 
and acts, and their distinguishing adornments of robes and palms, 



33 



and their differing emotions and words of love and gratitude and 
praise. " Salvation ! unto our God which sitteth on the throne, 
and unto the Lamb, " the joy cry of the washed and forgiven 
from earth, is met with the answering and appreciative shout of 
the never sinning: "Amen! Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, 
and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our 
God forever and ever. Amen!" Then, as always, there was. 
"joy in the presence of the angels of God" over the salvation 
which is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. There were two, at 
least, in that company of rejoicing "just men made perfect," that 
John had seen as spirits on earth. Fourteen hundred years after 
the death and burial of Moses; nine hundred years after the 
translation to heaven, in a chariot of fire, Elijah and Moses ap- 
peared in glory, on the mount of transfiguration, and " spake 
with Jesus of his death, which he was soon to accomplish at 
Jerusalem." Luke ix, 28-36. These two men were seen and 
known, and heard by Peter, and James, and John ! The facts 
furnish a beautiful illustration and affirmation of the doctrine 
that " God is God, not of the dead, but of the living /" 

5. There is another view of this subject, resting on the unmis- 
takable teaching of the Bible, that suggests perpetual themes for 
pious meditation, with perennial and ever varying subjects for 
faith and hope in personal experience. It may be found in its 
illimitable range for thought and feeling in a question of Paul,, 
when speaking of the angels, and affirming their subordination 
to Christ, who is " Head over all things to the church." He 
asks as to the angels, "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent 
forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation ?" The 
question itself is a rhetorical affirmation of the fact it contains,, 
with all the ideas and suggestions of the fact. It comprises and 
includes the whole sum of the angels and of the spirits of just 
men made perfect ; all of the indefinite millions of Daniel ; all 
of the innumerable company of Paul; all of the uncountable 
number of John. It excepts none, excludes none; every one of 



34 



them is a ministering spirit; every one of them is sent forth 
(New Ver.) "to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit 
salvation." All are employed, and always working in the fields 
of the kingdom ; all, everywhere, and always, seeking to save, 
servi?ig them that shall be heirs of salvation! How they min- 
ister we do not, may not, know until the light of the better land 
shines upon us. Eternal love directs, guides, and governs all 
their movements ; teaches them what to do; when, where, and 
how to do, whether it be to lay the foundation of the kingdom 
of heaven in the heart of a little child, to build again the temple 
of God that has fallen in ruins in the wayward and wicked heart, 
to thrill the broken heart with a new hope of life and love, or to 
precede, with their own presence and sympathy and love, the 
feet of the saints through the dark valley of the shadow of death. 
They know that the love of Christ has no terminating period, 
and "no changes of season or place will make any change in His 
mind." They know that the range and means of their ministry 
are as vast, comprehensive, and complete as the love that pro- 
vides it, and "the blood of sprinkling" that first opened the 
way of reconciliation between God and man ; and they have 
grown familiar with the work of carrying souls to the city of 
God. Befoi-e a redeemed sinner, washed in the blood of the 
Lamb and crowned with the joy of salvation, had passed through 
death, the portals of the New Jerusalem, prophetic poetry might 
have said or sung : 

" Angels, as ye wing your way 
From the realms of endless day, 
Deign to grace our lower sky, 

Come, and wonder ; 
Come, and see a Christian die." 

But not since. It is well known among the angels of God, and 
it has been published on earth, that, " Precious in the sight of 
the Lord is the death of his saints," and precious, also, to the 
sympathy and love of the whole angelic brotherhood ! With 



35 

joy they come to " bear us away, on their snowy wings, to our 
eternal home !" 

Let me die the death of the righteous, and and let my end be 
like his. 

" When as flowers themselves I perish, 

When I droop and fade like grass, 
When the life streams through my pulses 

Dull and ever duller pass, 
When at length they cease to roll, 

Then to cheer my sinking soul, 
Grace of Jesus ! be thou given — 

Source of "triumph ! Pledge of heaven." 



! 



